“I was detained a moment in that room,” he said, as the woman advanced to meet him.
Julius foamed as he realized how exactly the voice reproduced his own.
“Looks all right, doesn’t he?” asked Chick, as he closed the door. “Now, when they get to the end of the hall, Patsy, you follow on, and I’ll see that this fellow is locked up.”
Patsy moved away, and was soon in full view of Nick and his companion. They were standing in front of a clothing house, and the woman was urging him to make some purchases.
The woman had apparently not even glanced at Nick as he appeared in the hall in the guise of Mantelle. She had walked at his side until they were clear of the hotel without speaking. Now she said:
“It is plain that we must leave the city for a time.”
“I presume so,” said Nick.
The woman walked along in silence while Nick wondered what was coming next. He saw no reason for sudden flight on the part of the members of the syndicate; that is, unless they had learned something of his plans.
“I don’t see why that police detective suspected you,” continued the woman. “Why don’t you change your clothes and make yourself look different? You poke around in that black suit, looking like a preacher. Fix your hair different, and put on a sporty air. You look too solemn.”
“I must go back to my room to do that,” said Nick, realizing that this was just the thing he ought to do—get to Mantelle’s rooms. But it was not in the mind of the woman that he should reach that suite of rooms.